Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost

New York disco revivalists fail to make any significant advances with the genre

(DFA)

In March this year NY duo Holy Ghost supported Australian electropop heroes Cut Copy at the Arches. This debut album also comes in the wake of the excellent recent Cut Copy record, and does little to advance on the Aussies’ good practices. There are the same smooth 80s-influenced grooves, with all the requisite handclaps, synth fills and falsetto vocals, packaged within some familiar paeans to late nights, bright lights and fleeting love affairs. There’s a peak moment when the synth bassline squelches into life on mid-album juggernaut ‘Hold On’, but it’s one of HG’s older tracks, further emphasising that this is cosy disco revivalism only, and not a groundbreaking debut.